I am extremely proud to have coached our 5 competitors to the National Judo Championships 2014, in Reno Nevada.
Sunday was a very emotional day for me personally..

All of our members should know, that Hollywood Judo hasn’t even participated in the Nationals since the 1970’s. Our last National Champion was in 1965.

On Sunday May 4th, 49 years later, Mateus and Mostafa both took Gold in the Masters Black belt division. They thereby became National Champions.
Luis took Silver in the Masters Black belt division.
Giovanni got a Bronze in his tough Senior Brown belt division, and Charles ended 5th in his very tough Senior Brown belt division.

Mostafa is an exceptional and experienced judoka, but 4 of our 5 competitors have only trained judo for 2 years. Which makes these results even more extraordinary.
Over the last 6 months we have practically lived at the dojo, trained many hours of judo as well as fitness.
I am confident to say that I have tried to pack 10 years of judo knowledge into these guys in just 2 years, with the help of their dedication and their determination.

We made a great team, that also had a few set backs because of injuries. In fact, for some of them it was doubtful if they were even going to be able to participate at the Nationals. But we were smart in our preparations as well in our healing process, and eventually we managed to pull it all together.

I was very impressed with the manor in which our guys won their matches. With clean and throws and great Ippons. They were clearly up against opponents that had far more years of judo experience, but our quality of training turned out to pay off.

This was noticed and commented on by other coaches, officials and competitors from across the USA.

I would also like to thank all our members at Hollywood Judo Dojo that have been showing up to spar and to train with our Team. These medals we share with you.
A champion doesn’t make it alone, he needs training partners. So this is a victory for all of us at Hollywood Judo. We can all be proud of each other.

This weekend also brought Hollywood Judo to a new place on the National scene.
And we will train even harder starting today. Our dojo has many very good judokas that may or may not compete. But the over all quality of our club is constantly improving.